I've been building websites since 1994. The technology continues to change, most of it improvement, and it's a constant effort to stay current. Since I host a lot of the sites my team and I build, I also find myself in the "techie" mode from time to time. It has been that way for the past two-three weeks.

I started noticing the sites were loading slow and sometimes not at all. The task manager on the webserver kept showing the webservice to be using more than 500 megabytes of memory and 100% of the CPU power. I'd kill the service and watch it build back up. But, I had no indication as to which website was causing the problem.

I started Googling and reading when I had time and eventually learned how to separate and identify the processes for each website. When I found the culprit, I was surprised. It was an older site that hasn't had any recent modifications. What it did have, however, was a message board. The Board wasn't linked up to any page ...

After 24 weeks on the weightwatchers program, I am right back to where I started. At the most I was down 6.8 lbs., but I didn't stay down. It's not the program that failed. It's me not working the program.
 
Two days ago as I was pondering how this guy who was thin and healthy for the first half of his life has turned into this terribly overweight and out of shape person I am. It's simple really. More food, less activity.

So, to turn it around should be simple, too. Less food, more activity. That's my mantra now and I'm reciting it to myself everytime I get the urge to eat.

I'm walking every day around three. It's a pitifully small walk, but each day I increase it by one more section of the park out front. I'm lifting weights 3-4 nights a week.  Instead of trying to count weight watchers points I'm just trying to make wiser choices at meal time and to leave some on the plate. It should be simple, really. Why is it so ...

The presidential election didn't go my way. But I wasn't surprised. Disappointed, yes, but surprised, no. Last spring I had something--call it a premonition, call it a word from God--and I knew in my heart this was going to happen. I didn't want to believe it, but here we are.

The Bible tells us that it is God who ultimately appoints the boundaries and the rulers, so if you're a Christian, you have to accept the fact this somehow fits into God's plan. Maybe it's a time to bring America to repentance. Maybe it's a time for conservatives to regroup and redefine who they are. In recent years their actions in office haven't followed their stated values very well.

Ultimately, it is God's world and we're stewards of it. I've decided to not worry, even though I'm in a business that stands to lose a lot if Obama's ideas about healthcare reform are put into law. Daily I pray for my extended family. I pray for protection of our resources, our livelihood, our health and o ...

I haven't posted lately, but I've sure had a lot on my mind. I need to slow down and get some of it recorded. Last Friday night I did that . . . well, the slow down part. I did something that I haven't done in 20 years or so--watched one of my sons (not grandsons, but sons) play soccer. It was Nathan, now 32. Nathan has not been very active in any kind of sports beyond wrestling with his boys and throwing football with his brothers in our back yard on rare occasions.

One of Nathan's friends, a former coworker, plays on an adult soccer team and he told Nathan they had been short on players for a while. Nathan volunteered to help out for the remaining 6 games. Now he takes after me a little in the weight department, so he was the biggest guy on the field. He was smart enough to play defense so he wouldn't have to run all over the field.

Their game Friday night was against a team of Mexicans--young Mexicans who looked as if they'd been playing soccer all ...

I watched a few speeches from the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night -- Mike Huckaby, Mitt Romney, Rudy Gilliano, and of course Sarah Palin. I was suitably moved by all of them, and am pleased with the choice of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate.

Last night -- Thursday -- I watched the moving videos about the McCain family and listened to Cindy McCain's speech. I was ready to elect her President. Not only does she do public service from the heart, and all the mom stuff that is consistent with my values, but she's a PILOT and a race car driver who helped build her own race car. How cool is that????

In my book Cindy McCain and Sarah Palin could run this country. Women are generally more fiscally responsible than men anyway, at least within my circle of friends and family.

John McCain's speech was okay, but I kept wanting him to stop promising things he can't deliver on his own and plead with the American people to elect him a ...

It has been a while since I've posted anything, so I thought I would share a little about what I've been reading lately. Two of my best recommendations have come from my chiropractor, Dr. Alexia Grantland.  The first of those was Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall Hall and Denver Moore. On that same page in my Amazon search was The Shack by William P. Young. This is a book I highly recommend with the warning that it is som ...

I guess it's no secret that guys don't particularly like weddings. Yesterday Joyce and I went to one for the daughter of some longtime friends of ours. This wedding had some interesting twists. For one thing it's the first wedding I've been to that started out with a PowerPoint. I guess that's a sign of the times. The PowerPoint had pictures of the bride from birth to the present, then pictures of the groom from birth to the present, then pictures of them together. Scattered among the pictures were a few romantic sayings. Great way to start the show.

The next surprise was that the ringbearers, two young boys, came down the aisle in a fire engine. A bright, red, pedal-toy fire engine. Oh year, the groom is a fireman, so that was pretty cool. Outside, after the wedding there was a fire engine with a few firemen, there for pictures, I think, or maybe just to show support. I didn't notice if it was an Odessa Fire engine, but if so that was quite an accomplishment for a rookie ...

I had the most vivid dream last night. I was standing on an airport ramp at a mountainous airport with a man I knew in the dream to be the airport manager when a twin Beech approached. You know, the old twin-tailed freighter built back in WWII days.

It was obvious to us the pilot was landing too long and we waited anxiously for him to go around. Runway kept slipping away beneath the plane while it was still airborne. When more than half the runway was gone, the pilot finally added power, raised the gear and flaps and started a climb. The terrain in front of him rose steeply and the airplane wasn’t climbing very fast. It became apparent to the airport manager the plane was in trouble because he started running toward the runway and yelling, “Come on, climb, climb!”

Then I, too, realized the pilot was in trouble and started coaching him under my breath. The plane was climbing, but the terrain ahead of him was rising at a steeper angl ...

Well, it's official. I've started Weight Watchers again. It's a good thing, too, because I have crept back up to within 8 pounds of my all time high. Weight Watchers works for me when I work the plan and this time I'm well-motivated. Plus it's an "at work" program with plenty of support. I'm the only guy among 30 women, so they'll all have the opportunity to mother me.

I had a surprise when I calculated my daily points total. It's 9 points more than when I was on the program before. I asked the instructor to make sure I was figuring it right and she said, yes, the program has changed and don't worry about it. For now I have a whopping 42 points a day allowance plus the 35 point weekly extras if I need to use them. I probably won't at this rate.

A couple of the women in my department are stairwalking at lunch. They're up to 10 floors up now. I didn't try to join them and won't for a while, but I went on my own and made it up two whole flights. ...

Joyce and I were in Oxford over Memorial Day weekend for two events. One was a mini-reunion for my high school graduating class celebrating our 60th birthdays. Of course the birthdays are scattered from January to December, but for most of us, it will happen sometime this year. Mine happened in January. I don't feel 60, don't act 60 and neither do most of my classmates.

The second reason for being in town was for a book-signing for my memoir book, Oxpatch and the Hill - Dixieland Memories, at Square Books. It's a great place to have your books sold, right there along with John Grisham, Larry Brown, Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, Willie Morris and other Oxford authors. I can't say that my book signing turned out the same kind of crowd that Grisham's does, but it was fun for me. Several classmates dropped by, as did family members and a number of old family friends. I had a great time. I also left behin ...